darren lynn bousman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

While Terrance Zdunich has worked behind the scene on everything from "The Starship Troopers Chronicles" to Into The Wild, he really became a phenomenon unto himself in the last two years, when his collaboration with director Darren Lynn Bousman, Repo: The Genetic Opera, made its slow but inevitable move to the silver screen. Not merely helping conceive and design the film but functioning as one of its primary performers – playing the mysterious, ubiquitous Graverobber – Zdunich proved himself a versatile artist whose canvas lies in more than one medium.

Since the release of Repo last year, Zdunich hasn't slowed down, even though the trek from its original stage show – which we put on as a one-man performance – to a feature film was arduous to say the very least. But with the army of Repo followers growing by the day, Zdunich recognized the value – if not the importance – of continuing to create new properties and opportunities for fans to experience his uniquely creative world view. As such, he has created The Molting, a 12-part series that is every bit as odd and intriguing as its predecessor. The first installment, "Guilty Susie," is available now, and it sets the stage for an epic saga about a dysfunctional American family whose lineage traverses and interconnects with the entirety of human history. (Or at least that's what it says on the book's website, anyway.)

In May we got the creepiest Mother's Day news ever -- Darren Lynn Bousman was prepping a remake of Charles Kaufman's Mother's Day -- a film where a few boys rape and murder some girls to please their sadistic mother. It was just the sort of thing for the mom who already has enough flowers. But now the flick's got a more socially palatable plot, and our favorite evil caregiver. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Rebecca De Mornay has signed on to play Mom.

This incarnation zeroes in on a "wicked family" who decides to return to the house they grew up in and "terrorize the new owners and their guests." But it won't just be about the grown-up kids tapping into their murderous tendencies. De Mornay comes in as "Mother," who "will go to any length to protect her children." Bring on the De Mornay evil! If intent means anything for the final product, her involvement should be viciously sweet. Bousman says: "Every time you look at (Rebecca), she is on fire and to take her to this level, which is like her role in Hand That Rocks the Cradle times a thousand, is exciting. She is not some Freddy Krueger or Jason, so it was important for me to get a real actress."

De Mornay has had some horror fare since her classic stint as Mrs. Mott/Peyton Flanders, but nothing has rang as sweetly as Cradle. Would anyone have imagined that a Troma remake would possibly bring her back to that chill-worthy world? Production begins this month in Winnipeg with a cast that includes Jaime King, Shawn Ashmore, Briana Evigan, Alexa Vega, Matt O'Leary and Deborah Ann Woll. Are you ready for De Mornay's return to caretaker creeps?

Abattoir may simply be French for "slaughterhouse", but I've always thought it was a far, far more sinister word. Possibly it's because whenever someone wants to describe a true bloody chamber of horrors, they always call it an abattoir instead of "slaughterhouse" "torture room" or "that basement where all the bodies were!"

So the mere title of Darren Lynn Bousman's latest trip to the dark side has me good, scared, and intrigued. Variety reports that the plot centers on a real estate agent assigned the awful task of cleaning up the remnants of a massacre that took place in a for-sale mansion. As if the job wasn't gross enough, he's visited by a creepy old man who leads him into "a web of shadows, murders, and massacres." Something tells me that real estate agent isn't getting that big commission he banked on.

Bousman is writing and directing the film for Radical Pictures, a spin-off of Radical Comics who are just churning out the adaptations lately. (Caliber, Freedom Formula, and Hercules are just three they've got going right now.) Naturally, Radical and Bousman are are looking to the future, and this could be the first of many visits to the Abattoir. "After taking over the Saw franchise for so long and then directing Mother's Day based on the original film, this is exciting because it is an original concept and we feel it could be a huge franchise," says Bousman.

Read the rest over at The Horror Squad!

Since last September, at Fantastic Fest, it became immediately apparent that Repo! The Genetic Opera was due for a cult following, and a successful roadshow run last November and December seemed to confirm as much. I wasn't the biggest fan of Darren Lynn Bousman's goth-rock horror musical at the time, and don't exactly see myself giving it another look any time soon, but when its DVD release hasn't prevented fans from organizing summer screenings with shadow casts far and wide, it's futile to deny that it has at least an audience beyond home video and into the realm of true theatrical cultdom.

Meanwhile, the sheer sloppiness of Tommy Wiseau's infamous The Room has it similarly garnering underground popularity. I settled for seeing it on Cartoon Network when Adult Swim aired it as their idea of an April Fool's joke, and it became much more of a chore to sit through than I could've possibly imagined (and it's not like the constant commercial breaks weren't helping).

Would it have been much better with a crowd? I couldn't say, as the appeal hasn't quite reached Central Florida yet, but I ask: just because a film has reached the ranks of something like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, does that mean it truly deserves to? What are your personal criteria for a proper cult classic? What's your fondest memory of audience partici... pation, and what other films do you feel stand to join the ranks of the modern midnight movie that maybe haven't quite crept up on the ol' cultural radar just yet?

Wow, what does Darren Lynn Bousman's mom get for her special day? News that her son is remaking Charles Kaufman's Mother's Day, a 1980 exploitation horror flick from Troma that follows the hilarious misadventures of two brothers whose mom likes to watch them rape and murder women. Wait, did I say hilarious? Sorry, I meant icky and effed up. (But that doesn't mean I'm not going to Netflix it.) And no, it's not an existential and tripped-out treatise on love and mortality a la Charlie Kaufman. Charles Kaufman wrote and directed Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters, directed and produced Sextasy, and wrote Squeeze Play. He also has uncredited roles in Mother's Day as a cocaine addict and Squeeze Play as "Man with Popcorn in his Nose."

Back in September, standing outside of Austin's Paramount Theatre, myself and a couple of others listened to Darren Lynn Bousman as he talked about the challenges he was facing in getting Lionsgate to properly release his Repo! The Genetic Opera. The studio had taken down rave after rave after a select screening several months before, and now the next night's Fantastic Fest screenings were as good a chance as any to prove the film's worth.

Well, I saw the film the following night amidst an impressive turn-out of die-hard fans, so while I may have already made my own thoughts clear, I cannot deny its growing (and all but inevitable) cult following, and it seems that neither can Lionsgate. Following a limited release and successful road tour, Bloody Disgusting reports that each will be expanded in the weeks to come to include the likes of Phoenix, New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston.

As for everyone else, you can either keep your fingers crossed for a third tour (though Bousman and co-creator Terrance Zdunich may want to see their families for the holidays, who knows) or just wait for the DVD, which will apparently still hits stores in January.

Repo! The Genetic Opera is tailor-made to attract a fan following in coming years. To an extent, this stage-inspired future-set goth-rock horror musical already has, and its limited release – not to mention a concurrent road-show tour – is fitting for a film unique enough to never worry itself (nor its studio) with a screen count in the triple digits. This is a cult classic in waiting for Hot Topic teens who still believe that Tim Burton directed The Nightmare Before Christmas and won't know who Joan Jett is when she makes an appearance; the emphasis here falls heavily on 'cult' and not so much 'classic'.

I defended the Saw franchise long past the point where most self-respecting cinephiles and even genre geeks abandoned it. It was only after the moronic, baffling Saw IV that I got off the bandwagon. But as someone who thinks the franchise has (had?) something to offer beyond the admittedly questionable thrills of what smug know-nothings call "torture porn," I'm anticipating this month's annual installment with an ever-so-slight glimmer of hope. The first three films took a gimmicky serial killer concept and expanded it to something big and increasingly baroque, piling on twist after twist that, to me, consistently seemed bold rather than (merely) ludicrous. They were gruesome, yes, but they were also moody and visually exciting; Darren Lynn Bousman, in particular, seemed to take painstaking care in the second and third films to construct a cruel, self-contained universe around the crazy-ass story.

So here, briefly, are three things Saw V -- which sees the franchise's production designer David Hackl take over directing duties from Bousman -- could do to avoid the pitfalls of its immediate predecessor and restore my faith in the series.

By Monday, we were more than halfway through Fantastic Fest. On the one hand, festgoers who were just there for the weekend had departed, thinning the crowds slightly. On the other hand, some of us realized that there were still tons of movies to see and only a limited time, so we had better try to get into as many films as we could. I know some people who managed to see 5 or 6 films a day. I'm not one of them -- too wimpy.

One movie I saw and liked on Monday was Santos, a superhero film from Chile. When director Nicolas Lopez took the stage before the movie, I recognized him as one of the judges from Thursday night's Air Sex Championships. He was a wonderfully unpredictable judge and turned out to be a charming speaker during the intro and later during the Q&A for his film (as shown in the photo after the jump). Santos is about a comic-book artist who doesn't realize he has the same superpowers as one of the characters he writes about -- and at various points in his life, he's called upon to use those powers. It's very funny, but if you get the chance to see it, bear in mind that many of the gags are not at all family-friendly. Santos was produced by Elizabeth Avellan of Austin's Troublemaker Studios (which produces Robert Rodriguez's films) -- no U.S. distribution deals as of yet, but I hope that changes.

Things have changed a lot since Jennifer Aniston starred in Leprechaun in 1993 -- Friends, tumultuous romances, and a whole non-horror career. But what if she went back to the fold?

During a discussion with MTV, Darren Lynn Bousman, the man behind Repo!, wishes he could follow the rainbow. "I would do Leprechaun in a second. If Lionsgate is listening, give me Leprechaun." But he wouldn't get too serious with the material if given the chance to reboot it: "It's just one of those fun popcorn movies. I would love to bring back the fun popcorn movie -- extreme violence, extreme absurdity -- but make it fun." His idea of fun -- the little bugger in the old west with gold and gun fights.

Personally, I think this could be great if they get Aniston back in on it, and just go wacky. How about you?